Poker Hand of the Week: 9/16/16You Decide What's The Best Play |
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Give us your opinion in the comments section below for your chance at winning a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.
Ask any group of poker players how you played your hand and they’ll come up with dozens of different opinions. That’s just the nature of the game.
Each week, Card Player will select a hand from the high-stakes, big buy-in poker world, break it down and show that there’s more than one way to get the job done.
The Scenario
There are six players remaining in a big buy-in, online tournament, and only three will make the money. The blinds are 1,500-3,000 with a 450 ante, meaning your stack of 110,392 is worth 36 big blinds. That puts you in fifth place overall, although the shortest stack is still pretty comfortable with 32 big blinds and everyone at the table is an elite player.
It folds to the cutoff, who raises to 7,500. You are next to act on the button and see A
A
. You decide to get tricky and just call, allowing the villain in the big blind to call as well.
The flop comes down K
Q6
and the villain checks. The cutoff bets 8,811 and you call. The villain calls as well. The turn is the 2 and the villain checks again.
This time, the cutoff checks and you decide to bet 21,784. The villain calls and the cutoff folds. The river is the 2 and the villain checks. There is 96,701 in the pot and you have 71,847 behind. The villain has you covered by about 15 big blinds.
The Questions
Do you check behind, or bet? Are you betting for value or as a bluff? If betting, how much? What range of hands is the villain likely to have? How much of his range beats your hand and how much of his range is worse? How does the money bubble and relatively low blinds affect your decision?
What Actually Happened
In the 2016 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $102,000 buy-in super high roller event, Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski opted to bet 59,954 with his aces on a board of KQ622.
His opponent, Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, raised all in. Badziakouski only had 11,893 behind, less than four big blinds, but he still used most of his time bank before finally making the call, only to see Holz held K2 for a runner-runner full house.
Badziakouski was eliminated in sixth place, falling just short of the money. Holz went on to finish in second place after a deal which netted him $1,067,639. The cutoff in the hand, who folded on the turn, was Sweden’s “bencb789,” who took home the title and the $1,172,461 first-place prize.
What would you have done and why? Let us know in the comments section below and try not to be results oriented. The best answer will receive a six-month Card Player magazine digital subscription.
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